


Beneath the Rubble

by CallToMuster



Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Buried Alive, Gen, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Ahsoka Tano, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallToMuster/pseuds/CallToMuster
Summary: “grshhhh…. Obi-W--zzzzz--hear me?”The noise was loud next to his ear. Obi-Wan groaned slightly. Who was bothering him now? He just wanted to rest. So tired…“If you can--gszkkkrshh--aster, say somethin--hrshhhzzzk”Ugh, that sounded like Anakin. Whatever the problem was, couldn’t he handle it on his own for once?“...kshh--OBI-WAN!”{Written for Whumptober 2020. Day 4: "Buried Alive | Collapsing Building"}
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948819
Comments: 22
Kudos: 271





	Beneath the Rubble

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of writing a paper for one of my classes and you know what it may not have been the smartest decision but I’m not backing down now.
> 
> This is my second time trying to post this, so hopefully it works.
> 
> Also, sorry to all the people I traumatized with my last Whumptober fic. I promise this one isn't as bad!!

“ _grshhhh…. Obi-W--zzzzz--ear me?”_

The noise was loud next to his ear. Obi-Wan groaned slightly. Who was bothering him now? He just wanted to rest. So tired…

“ _If you can--gszkkkrshh--aster, say somethin--hrshhhzzzk”_

Ugh, that sounded like Anakin. Whatever the problem was, couldn’t he handle it on his own for once?

“... _kshh--OBI-WAN!”_

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and began to sit up. Almost immediately he hit his head on something, sending him right back down. He blinked, ending up having to do it quite a few times as his eyes watered to get rid of the massive amounts of dust in them. When his eyes felt (mostly) clear, he could see… well, nothing. Everything was dark. He raised his right hand up very slowly and found almost immediately that there was a massive piece of what seemed to be ferrocrete lying right above him, only a few inches away. _What the…?_

“ _grshk--don’t think he can hear m--tssssst”_

The comm was still by his left ear. He carefully moved his left arm from its place by his side to the side of his head, making sure not to brush the top of his little environment. Scrabbling, his fingers found the button on the side of the comm and pressed down.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan began, then broke off into a cough. He wheezed, suddenly aware of the dust in his mouth and throat, wanting more than anything a sip of water. 

“ _Obi-Wan! Are you th--”_

The comm kept cutting in and out. Obi-Wan held it up to his face as best he could. Then he realized that was a rather stupid idea because there was no light in the space, he couldn’t see anything. A quick exploration with his fingers revealed that it felt like something had popped out of place slightly on the back panel. He fiddled with it for a second before it clicked satisfyingly.

“-- _need you to tell me if you can hear me!_ _”_ Anakin was saying, and Obi-Wan could hear him much better without the static.

“I can hear you,” he croaked.

“ _Obi-Wan! Thank the Force. Are you alright?”_

“Fine,” Obi-Wan said without really thinking about it. “Are the men okay?”

Things were coming back to him. He and a small squadron of 212th troopers had been exploring the buildings of a seemingly abandoned city on Bothawui. Like most aspects of wartime, it had been uneventful right up until it wasn’t. Obi-Wan had felt something off in the Force as soon as they entered the town hall, but it hadn’t crystallized until a second or two before an explosion rocked the entire structure. He had been able to use that time to Force push the troopers out of the door -- or so he hoped. He couldn’t tell if there was anybody else around him or not. Now that he thought about it, his head hurt quite a lot, and it was making it hard to concentrate. 

“ _They’re all okay, they were far enough outside of the blast radius to not be caught underneath the building,_ ” Anakin said. “ _I don’t believe you about being fine. Give me a rundown._ ”

Obi-Wan wanted to groan. “Giving a rundown” meant that he had to catalogue his body from head to toe and report anything wrong. It had started way back when Anakin was a newly freed nine year old boy who tended to hide injuries out of fear that he’d be thrown out or punished. It had been quite useful for a year or two while Anakin was learning that it was okay to be injured or sick. Once he’d gotten that lesson inside his head however, he turned the tables on Obi-Wan. Every time Obi-Wan tried to protest, Anakin used his own words against him and said things like “it’s dangerous not only for yourself but to others when you hide injuries” and “being hurt or sick does not diminish your value as a person.” Things that Obi-Wan knew, okay? He knew that. He just… Well, he didn’t want to tell other people sometimes. Which was fine, and a perfectly valid decision for himself. Giving rundowns was unnecessary. Really.

“ _Obi-Wan…_ ” Anakin warned. 

“Ugh, fine,” Obi-Wan muttered, giving in. He didn’t really have the energy to argue. “Let’s see… My head hurts. My ribs feel a little sore. Hmm…” He carefully reached down and patted around his thigh. “There seems to be a piece of rebar sticking through my leg. Oh, there’s only about half a foot between me and the ceiling, not enough room to sit up or move around or anything, which is a little annoying. And it’s quite dusty in here.”

“ _A piece of -- Obi-Wan, you just said you were fine!”_

“I _was_ feeling fine until you made me start thinking about things!” Obi-Wan retorted, a little annoyed. Now that he mentioned it, his leg was starting to hurt rather a lot. A groan escaped his lips unbidden. 

“ _Okay, okay, uh, just keep calm. Keep breathing,_ ” Anakin instructed. Obi-Wan could hear him barking orders to the troopers around him. There was quite a bit of background noise: pounding feet, the scrape of equipment, Anakin telling Rex and Cody for the third time that they needed medics on hand. Obi-Wan took a deep breath just to humor Anakin, then immediately fell into a coughing fit. 

“ _Hey, you good, Obi-Wan?”_

It took a few seconds before Obi-Wan managed to say, “I did say it was dusty in here, Anakin.” His ribs felt like they were on fire.

“ _You did say that, yeah,_ ” Anakin said, sounding distracted. “ _No, no, not there! Set that down by me._ ” That last bit sounded farther off, like he wasn’t saying it into the comm. Obi-Wan figured it was okay to rest for a little bit, since Anakin was busy. He could just close his eyes for a minute or two and…

“ _\--Wan! Obi-Wan!”_

Obi-Wan jolted awake again, but thankfully did not make the same sitting up mistake as last time. “Hmm, ‘nakin?”

“ _There you are_.” Anakin sounded very relieved. “ _Gotta stay awake, okay?_ ”

“‘m tired,” he slurred. 

“ _I know, I know,”_ Anakin soothed. “ _But you gotta keep talking to me until we can reach you._ ”

Obi-Wan hummed but made no response. Normally Anakin was the one telling him he had to sleep _more_ , not less. Why couldn’t he have picked a better time to switch sides? Obi-Wan’s leg was really killing him now, and his head felt kind of fuzzy. He couldn’t tell if the ground was actually shifting around him or if he was just dizzy. Probably both. 

“ _You know what I think?_ ” Anakin said, out of nowhere. “ _I think Madame Synata is the best holoactress of all time._ ”

What?! _That_ made Obi-Wan wake up a bit. He knew Anakin was just trying to get him to respond, but that statement was too absurd to ignore.

“Excuse me? Her work is trashy at best.”

Anakin’s scoff echoed throughout the tiny space. “ _Are you seriously calling_ The Space-Time Continuum of Our Love _t_ _rashy?_ ”

Which one was that one again? There were so many, and Anakin had forced him to watch them all. “Is that the one where she and her two lovers roam across the galaxy in a feud with a rival pirate gang and then it turns out that one of her lovers is --”

“ _\-- is actually a member of said rival pirate gang, which is_ actually _all a front for the bloodthirsty Corellian clergy? And then Madame Synata reveals that she’s the long lost Corellian princess, and also a time traveler, and that she knew this would happen so she came back in time to stop in because in her future her lovers both died? And then the movie ends with_ her _dying instead and her last words are--_ ” 

“‘The stars could never burn as much as my heart burns with love for you’?” Anakin and Obi-Wan finished at the same time, Anakin in excitement and Obi-Wan in self-loathing. 

“ _Yes! I knew you were paying attention that one time._ ”

“I was bored and confined to a medical bed and you refused to lower the volume,” Obi-Wan retorted. 

“ _Well, the results speak for themselves. And that film is not trashy._ ”

Obi-Wan was about to respond with something along the lines of “then you wouldn’t know trash if it hit you in the face” when something shifted above him and rained plaster down on his face. The ferrocrete inched closer to his nose. 

“ _Hey! Careful!”_ Anakin shouted at someone on the other side of the comm, then returned to Obi-Wan. “ _You good down there?”_

“...I’d appreciate getting out of here sooner rather than later,” Obi-Wan said, a bit wryly but with an undercurrent of urgency. He was not exactly having what one would call a pleasant time.

“ _I know, we’re going as fast as we can. Things just keep shifting and we need to be safe about this.”_ Anakin sounded apologetic. He seemed to turn away again. " _Watch it, watch it!”_

“Anakin, I’d rather you be focused on getting me out of here rather than talking with me if you need to choose between one or the other.” And it was true. Deep down he desperately did not want Anakin to leave him in silence, but if it meant he would get out faster and safer, he would accept it.

Anakin was silent for a few seconds. “ _As much as I hate to admit it, I think I might need to direct the excavation team.”_

“Then go do that,” Obi-Wan directed. His throat hurt at the words. Must be from the dust. “Promise I’m not going anywhere.”

“ _You better not, Master,”_ Anakin exclaimed, then sighed. “ _Alright. I’ll talk to you soon then._ ”

Obi-Wan hummed in agreement and closed his eyes. It was getting harder and harder to keep them open, and to keep his words from slurring. Now he didn’t have to worry about that. He could just drift off...

“ _Master Obi-Wan?”_

Obi-Wan opened his eyes and blinked, not that that did much. It was still pitch black. “Ahsoka?”

“ _Hey, Master. Anakin asked me to keep you company for a little while.”_

Well now, that was just playing dirty. Anakin knew Obi-Wan would have to keep up a good facade for the Padawan. Obi-Wan would be impressed at the manipulation if he weren’t so annoyed. But he wouldn’t let any of that irritation slip into his voice, Ahsoka didn’t deserve any of that. Still, he was a little confused.

“Didn’t realize you were here,” he said, shifting a bit to try and get more comfortable, then regretting it immediately when it jarred the kriffing _pole that was sticking out of his leg_. 

“ _I’ve been here on Bothawui the whole time, Master,_ ” Ahsoka answered, sounding concerned. “ _You and I went scouting together this morning, remember?”_

Now that she mentioned it, Obi-Wan guessed he did remember something like that. That was this morning? It was all somewhat of a blur. 

“Hmm, yes…” he responded, after realizing he’d been silent for a little too long.

“ _How are you feeling, Master?”_

Obi-Wan snorted. If it weren’t so dark, he probably would have been able to see a cloud of dust rise at that. “I’ve been better, Padawan.”

“ _Oh. Yeah.”_

Ahsoka sounded dejected. Obi-Wan wanted to slap himself. He needed a better filter. Somewhat frantically, he searched for something else they could talk about.

“How is your intergalactic politics essay coming along?”

Ahsoka latched onto this topic eagerly. “ _It’s really kicking my_ shebs _, Master.”_ Obi-Wan wondered which trooper it was who taught her _that_ word. Probably all of them. “ _I just can’t seem to understand the governmental structure of Pho Ph’eah.”_

This would normally be right in Obi-Wan’s wheelhouse, but he found himself too tired to speak much about it.

“Remind me later…” he mumbled. 

Before Ahsoka could respond, the rubble shifted again and the pole was driven further through Obi-Wan’s leg. He couldn’t help it -- he screamed. 

“ _Obi-Wan!”_ Anakin was back on the comm now. “ _Obi-Wan, say something._ ”

“‘s alright, ‘nakin,” he slurred, panting a little. His world had erupted into flames of agony, licking at his leg. “Didn’t really like that leg anyway.”

“ _What?! I need an update on your condition. Gimme another rundown,_ ” Anakin was ordering him. So pushy, his Padawan.

“‘ve got an extra leg, ‘s okay.” Who needed two legs anyway? It was like a kidney in Humans. Only one was _really_ necessary, right? Hells, some people didn’t have legs at all, and they were fine. Maybe he should just ask Anakin to have them take the other one off at the same time, so he could be symmetrical.

…Perhaps he was getting slightly delirious. 

Anakin was not pleased. “ _Obi-Wan, stay with me._ ”

Obi-Wan let out a faint chuckle that made his ribs burn even more. “Can’t really go ‘nywhere.”

“ _We’re almost to you, okay? Just keep talking to me._ ” Obi-Wan could hear voices and machinery beeping from Anakin’s side of the comm. If he really concentrated, he could just about hear it from his own surroundings as well. 

“You’re a good person, Anakin,” he said, because all of a sudden it seemed really important that his former Padawan know that. But words were getting jumbled in his mouth as the rubble shifted above him again. Thankfully the rebar remained where it was. 

“ _Nah, I’m a nuisance, remember? Your annoying former Padawan,_ ” Anakin replied, a strange undercurrent in his voice.

Obi-Wan shook his head before regretting the movement as it sent spikes of pain racing down his neck and spine. “Good,” he insisted, eyes falling shut again of their own accord. “Good…”

If Anakin said anything after that, it was lost in the chaotic jumble that followed. A massive piece of ferrocrete was lifted, and all of a sudden light hit Obi-Wan’s face. He hissed, trying to get away, but that only made his body hurt more. No-win situations indeed. 

Anakin appeared up above him, comm in hand. Obi-Wan tried to focus on his face -- were his lips moving? -- but it was so hard and he was so… tired…

Darkness. Pain. Relief. Voices. 

_“--surprised he managed to stay conscious for that long; you did well in keeping him talking--”_

_“--really scared me, Master, he sounded so weak--”_

_“--will probably wake up in the next day, but he’s going to be out of it for a while--”_

Lights. Floating. Murmurs. Softness.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes. They were sticky. Sniffing ever so lightly, he recognized the smell of bacta. He raised his head a few inches -- how novel that ability was now -- and looked over himself. He was in the medbay, probably the _Negotiator_ ’s, if he wasn’t mistaken. His leg appeared to be _heavily_ bandaged, but it was still there, which was a nice surprise. He and Anakin wouldn’t match after all.

Force, what kind of painkillers was he on? 

Obi-Wan dropped back down to the pillow. He really did feel fuzzy, but it was a nice kind of fuzzy now, like there was a soft blanket over everything. 

Fuzzy. Heh. That was kind of funny. Fuzzy was the name of the head medic for the 212th. His name came from his hair, which due to the fact that it was shaved pretty close to the scalp, looked kind of fuzzy. His name also apparently came from the fact that he was notoriously bad at talking with patients; the clones loved to be ironic. Was Fuzzy’s head as soft as a blanket? Maybe next time he saw Fuzzy he would ask. Yes, he would have to remember to do that...

He relaxed, and his head lolled to the side. Anakin was sitting in a chair by his bedside, asleep with his head propped up on his metal hand. He seemed to have been there for quite a while. His comm was on his belt. 

Obi-Wan smiled to himself, then finally, blissfully, let himself fall asleep. 

**Author's Note:**

>   * Madame Synata was an actress in a (canon?) comics story featuring Anakin and Padmé, but I’m gonna be honest, I first learned about her from her mentions in Ibelin’s excellent series [_Life and What Comes After_](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1349374)! The holofilm _The Space-Time Continuum of Our Love_ was completely fabricated by me, however.
>   * Also, Fuzzy is my own creation! If you’d like to see him in all his glory, check out my fic [_these battle scars (don’t look like they’re fading)_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553209).
> 

> 
> I finished tomorrow’s Whumptober fic last night, but to be honest I don’t have anything else pre-written and I’m pretty busy so updates to this series will be much more sporadic after tomorrow!
> 
> Thanks for reading! This was my favorite thing that I’ve written for Whumptober so far.
> 
> {Come talk with me on my [Tumblr](https://calltomuster.tumblr.com)!}


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